Carrot Rice (Shirazi Style)

Shirazi Carrot Rice is a delicious and healthy meal made with fresh carrots, spices, and herbs.

Ingredients (for four people)

Rice: four cups

Carrots: four

Chicken meat: 250 grams

Onion: one

Rose water: half a cup

Sugar: 4 tablespoons

Almond, pistachio, and orange peel slices: three tablespoons each

Salt, turmeric, saffron, and oil: as per taste

Recipe

Soak the rice in cold water for at least one hour before starting the cooking process.

Boil the orange peel slices in water for 10 minutes to remove their bitterness.

Slice the carrots into small pieces and fry them until they change colour. Then, pour rose water into the pan. Add pistachio and almond slices to it, along with some sugar. Mix these ingredients a little on a low flame so that there will be a mixed taste in them.

Place the chicken in a pot of water. Cut the onion into four parts and add it to the pot along with a little salt and turmeric. Boil for at least half an hour, until the chicken is fully cooked.

Fill a medium-sized pot halfway with water and put it on the flame until the water boils. Drain the rice, pour it into the boiling water, and let it boil for 10 to 15 minutes until it is almost cooked, and then drain it. Pour oil into the bottom of the pot and put it on the heat. When the oil is hot, use slices of bread or potatoes to cover the bottom of the pot and to make “Tahdig”.

Add some of the cooked rice to the bottom of the pot, spreading it evenly. Then layer some of the carrot mixture on top. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used. Do this several times until the ingredients are used up. Reserve some of the slices for decoration. It’s preferable to finish with a layer of rice on top, then sprinkle almonds, pistachios, and orange peel slices for garnish.

Dissolve the ground saffron in warm water, pour a few spoons of it on the rice, cover the pot, and then leave it on a low flame to steam. Steam the rice on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

How to Serve Shirazi Carrot Rice

Serve the carrot rice in a dish and arrange the pieces of chicken around it. Then use some of the slices that you had left aside for decoration. You can reuse the saffron solution to colour the rice.

A mixture of yoghurt and cucumber, raw edible vegetables, raw onions, pickles, and Shirazi salad is also usually served with Shirazi Carrot Rice.

It is said that there are 250 local dishes in the vast province of Fars, Iran, some of which cannot be found in any of the regions of Iran.